


Badasses (sometimes) send flowers

by fangirl_94



Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, Fluff, I mean it's jack, M/M, Rhys as Jack's PA, but nothing graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 13:58:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11254371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_94/pseuds/fangirl_94
Summary: Rhys implies that Jack is not romantic and Jack being Jack takes that as a challenge. Rhys discovers something about himself.





	Badasses (sometimes) send flowers

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is my first time writing for this fandom and it's been a loooong while since I shared something I wrote, so I am a little bit rusty. Sorry for grammatical mistakes.

Rhys looked at the poor guy that laid in a mess of blood on Jack’s office floor, and paged the janitorial services, just because he was no longer scared by Jack’s raging fits – and wasn’t that a weird development –, didn’t mean he enjoyed seeing the bloody mess like Jack did.

“Why did you have to kill him so messily?” God, he would never get used to the smell of blood.

“Because he was a dirty thief, kitten, he and his girlfriend were stealing from us and he still had the guts to lie to my face. Now he no long has guts, ha, see what I did there?” Rhys rolled his eyes at Jack’s cheerful voice.

“He was just trying to protect his girlfriend.” The poor bastard had screamed and kicked saying that he had been the only one that stole the money, even with Jack's kknife deep in his belly, that was a refreshing, if stupid, thing to see in Hyperion.

“Oh, that’s cute, cupcake, you’re a romantic.” Jack’s voice had that sneer that Rhys learned to love.

“Jack, I’m dating you. How can I be a romantic?” Rhys looks up from the mess on the floor to where Jack has paused taking off his bloodied jacket, and is now looking at Rhys with squinting eyes, and a severe downturn on his mask’s lips.

“Are you saying I am not a romantic, pumpkin?”

Rhys considered his options of answers: he could roll his eyes and ignore Jack, but that would make Jack throw a tantrum and probably leave him on the outside of their penthouse for a couple days – it has happened before when Rhys questioned Jack’s taste in coffee and tried to change it for tea –, so that was a no no; he could say that ‘no, Jack, you are not a romantic, on our first year anniversary you took me to see a play where the people who died were war prisoners and actually died in the fucking stage’, that had been a difficult night to sleep – not entirely because of the traumatic experience; or he could say that Jack was a romantic, and that apparently was what Jack would like to hear, it looked like a trap…

“Of course, you are romantic Jack… In your way.” He tried to put on a truthful smile on his face, but that only made Jack snort, and flung his ruined jacket at the ground.

“You don't look so sure of what you just said, Rhysie. You saying I can't be romantic?" He sat on his high chair and looked at Rhys imperiously. Rhys fidgeted a little. And this is exactly what he thought would happen, he should have just said that Jack was as romantic as a bullymong.

"Oh my God, Jack, no, I am not saying anything, I don't even know how we got in this conversation to begin with. Can we just concentrate move on from this topic and see how we are going to fill the paperwork for this… work causality?" He looked pointed at the ground and hoped that his face was pitiful enough for Jack to accept changing subjects.

The CEO was still looking at Rhys with calculating eyes, but nodded anyway. Rhys let out a sigh and began going through the report.

 

Now, Rhys knew that the talk was not going to end there. He knew Jack too well. He was his PA for three years, and if he didn't learn how to read not only jack's moods, but to predict them, he would have been air locked within the first month. He has gotten so good with Jack’s moods that Vaughn had taken to calling him Jack whisperer, when Jack wasn’t in the close vicinity, of course.

 And to top that, he was in a romantic (hah) relationship with Jack for over one year now. And that, whew, that was an entire different basis of learning how to deal with Jack's daily BS. At the beginning it was hard, it still is hard even after all this time, but he got better and better at predicting when Jack was having a good day, and it was safe to joke with him, even laugh at him, without being snapped at – or shot at, to be very honest. And predict when Jack was having a bad day, on those it was best to give him his space, while at work, don’t question him, just nod and say “yes, sir”, and at night they would have some good rough sex that would leave Rhys with a sweet ache on his lower back and a big, dopey smile on his face.

So when a week later Rhys wakes up to a cold bed with no Jack in sight, he should have remembered that day at the office – well, there so much blood, could anyone blame him for forgetting the words that were said –, he also should have remembered it when he got to the sitting room and still no Jack in the vicinity.

"Jack?" He sleepily entered the bathroom, it was empty. He put his head into the office that was accessible through the bedroom and it was equally empty.

He padded through the quiet house, and since the penthouse had an open concept Rhys could see the kitchen, the sitting room and the entrance area but Jack was nowhere in sight. Rhys checked the time. 6:17 am, usually at that time Jack would be at the kitchen making coffee that was so strong that you could drink it using a spoon, just with his pants on, his skin still slightly warm and soft from the shower, not wearing his mask and giving Rhys a shit eating grin asking him if he had dreamt about him. But now Jack was nowhere in sight, although the smell of the vile drink the CEO considered coffee was wafting through the air, indicating that he had been there not too long ago.

Stranger still was a small package sitting on the kitchen counter. Rhys went closer to inspect it. It was small black box, about five centimeters, very inconspicuous – and suspicious – looking, with a small golden handle on the upper part. There was a card beside it, a rectangular piece of paper, expensive looking and nice to the touch, and written in Jacks neat calligraphy was 'For my little honey bee', and a bee hastily drawn below the phrase along with the letters HJ.

Rhys squinted his eyes at the box as if it could suddenly jump out of the counter and bite his face off, and knowing Jack it wouldn’t be impossible. He tried to scan it with his ECHOeye and only got 5,2x5cm, origin: Terra II. Rhys’s eyebrows shot up, what the fuck kind of prank was that?

“Very funny, Jack. If this is another slime bomb you are going to clean my hair with your tongue!” He expected Jack to come out cackling by now, but a few seconds passed and nothing happened. Rhys sighed and reached for the box. Damn, he would kill Jack if his hair suffered to the amusement of the older man again.

He closed his eyes and gingerly opened the box by the golden handle.

Nothing happened.

He opened one eye after two seconds with nothing happening and peered at the open box.

“Holy shit.” He held the box up, closer to his face because he was not believing it.

The inside of the box was made of black velvet and sitting on the middle of the box was a bright red rose, and the most beautiful flower Rhys had ever seen in his life. He smelled the flower and felt a big smile appear on his face. It smelled like nothing he has ever felt before, it must have been hard for Jack to get that type of flower all the way up in Helios. Rhys put the box down to admire it some more while his mind tried to give him an answer to why the hell Jack had given him a flower. Jack was never romantic… Oh, wait, that romantic commentary.

Rhys snorted. Trust Jack to take up on a challenge to become romantic, after more than one year into a relationship. Well, Rhys was not going to complain if it got him more sweet surprises like that. He would like it if Jack were here with him though, so he could thank him properly, but the man really wasn’t around. Must be in the office, then.

Upon further inspection, Rhys saw that below the box was written in delicate golden letters indicating that it was a red grandiflora rose from Terra II – now Rhys wanted to know just how Jack got hold of a flower that was cultivated half a galaxy away – and that it would remain like that as long as it was not taken off the box. Rhys went back to the bedroom clutching the box to his chest and set it on a shelf in the bedroom wall that was occupied by some different types of rocks that Jack, for some reason, collected, and went to take his shower to start the day. If he looked and smiled at the flower one last time before going to eat breakfast that was no one’s business. As it was no one’s business if he did it again before leaving the house for the office.

Now, Rhys has never really been a man given to romantics. Sure, he liked to be treated right – ignore falling in love with Handsome effing Jack –, and of course he liked to be doted on by the significant other – again, let’s ignore that he was in a relationship with the man that people never really liked when he had his total attention on them. So, to say that he was a romantic guy and then in the next breath say that he is in a considerably long-term relationship with Handsome Jack, one of the most feared and less gentle man in this solar system was to be in the least paradoxical.

But, as stated before, being around Jack for so long has made Rhys see sides of the man that maybe no one has ever seen before. Rhys knew how Jack took his coffee – strong enough to kill a man –, he knows that Jack likes to have cold showers on cold days – an argument topic when they were to have, uhm, funny times in the showers –, he knew that Jack liked foot rubs, and would agree on almost anything if it was done right – and wasn’t _that_ an useful discovery –, he also knew about what Jack hid under the mask – the memory of the day Jack had taken off his mask and stared at Rhys with resignation on his face, as if he expected Rhys to run for the hills still manage to shatter Rhys’s heart –, he knew that Jack was a biter, and would bite every part of Rhys’s body that he could reach – once he bit Rhys’s armpit, for goodness sake –, he knew Jack sometimes had nightmares that made him wake up screaming and sobbing – on those nights he would go to the sitting room and open the big blinds on the windows that faced Elpis, smoking cigarette after cigarette, and would return to bed hours later, hugging Rhys very tightly, as if anchoring himself to the present.

So, even though Jack was not a romantic man, or gentle man, or a loving partner, he was not the worst man in the universe. Well, he had his raging fits when he would go around killing people, but usually those people deserved it. Sort of. They were people that tried to steal, cheat, or assassinate Jack, or idiots that didn’t get a fucking clue that he was having an episode and just stood in his way. So they kinda deserve it.

But he was never violent towards Rhys, and he has always treated him fairly. A little bit manipulative, yes. Very jealous, also. And a little bit pushy. But he was never really abusive, as Yvette and Vaughn feared at first. The difficult was in the aspect that every relationship was difficult, like all of Rhys’s past relationships had been difficult. He was not the easiest man to live with and Jack was also not the kindest of men, it got time and some effort to get used to each other. And Rhys was surprised that Jack had been on board with getting used to Rhys’s BS.

At the beginning it was difficult, it was one thing being his PA – and that had been a hard thing to get used to –, another thing is to start dating Jack.

For God’s sake for their first date, that Jack had tricked him into going, making him spend his lunch time at the office and then offering to pay him a dinner. And Rhys was not about to refuse free dinner at a fancy place. And he surprisingly enjoyed it. Jack did not try to woo him, he just talked Rhys’s pants off to be completely honest. They had a nice dinner, talking about work, and then the next hour Rhys was at Jack’s penthouse with Jack’s dick down his throat.

At the end Jack wanted more and Rhys wanted more, so why the hell not.

So, no, since day one they had never been romantic in their relationship, so that flower, even being a display of childish behavior of Jack just not accepting the facts, was really nice in Rhys’s opinion.

When Rhys entered the office, Jack was already there as he predicted, frowning at an ECHO, and with a cup of coffee – that Rhys knew was not his first, maybe not even his second of the day –held loosely in his hand.

“Good morning, Jack, you’re in early today.” He made sure that his voice was friendly, but not letting a clue about what he was thinking exactly. God forbid him of ever letting Jack know how much he liked the gift, he would never survive the teasing.

Jack looked at Rhys and his frown disappeared, giving place to a smirk.

“Missed me or something, cupcake?” The CEO took  sip from his cup and frowned at it, childishly turning the mug upside down, making sure there was not even a drop of the poison inside of it.

Rhys walked over Jack’s desk and leaned his hip on it, crossing his arms.

“I think we should look over the penthouse security system.” He said casually, and Jack looked at him with a confused face that made Rhys fight to keep the smile on his face.

“And why is that, kitten?”

“Something weird happened this morning. I think someone sneaked into it and left a box on the kitchen counter.” Jack’s face relaxed and he gave a half smile in Rhys direction before turning back to the ECHO device.

“Oh, really? A box? And what was inside of it?”

“Now that was the strangest thing. At first, I thought it was another slime bomb,” Rhys chose to ignore Jack’s snort. “but when I opened it I saw the most beautiful flower that I have even seen in my life inside of it.”

“Oh? That is weird, indeed.”

“Right? And there’s more. There was a card too. It said, sweet things, and was signed ‘HJ’. And I was thinking, could it be that Huston James, from accounting invaded our home and is trying to court me?”

Jack’s head snapped at Rhys at the mention of Huston James’s name, his eyes squinted and his mouth an angry downturn.

“Who the fuck is Huston James, now? And why would you think about him courting you? Did he ever imply that he was trying to woo you, Rhysie?” Jack’s voice was a low promise of mayhem, a voice that caused dread on most people, but the effect in Rhys was a little bit different. It left him feeling Slightly around and slightly fond of the man in front of him.

Rhys broke out on a laugh. “Oh my God, Jack, your face!” He knew he shouldn’t aggravate Jack using other people’s name because that could end badly for the poor sod, but he just couldn’t resist.

Jack growled and got up from his chair, pressing himself up Rhys and holding onto his shoulders, effectively looming over Rhys while he fought to control his laugh. Rhys breathed in deeply, and looked into Jack’s green and blue eyes, and immediately his laughing subsided. Jacks eyes always managed to draw Rhys into the older man, he wanted to dive into his eyes, and be enveloped by the bright colors forever. A warm feeling still setting onto his chest. Goddammit, maybe he was a romantic fucker.

“Rhys, answer me.”

Rhys felt his face morph into a fond smile, damn, he was supposed to make Jack become a fool, not make a fool of himself. He released his arms from Jack’s hold and put his hand on each cheek of the older man, felling the skin-like texture of the mask, and marveling in how Jack, even mad leaned on his hands subconsciously.

“I was just considering a person that could be a ‘HJ’ and that could have possibly given me a flower.”

Jack sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Okay, you big wuss, I admit, it was me. I sent you flowers. A flower.”

Rhys laughed at the admission, as if anyone else could have possibly sent that flower.

“Well, that is very out of character.” Jack snorted but nodded.

“Yes, I am a badass. Badasses don’t send _flowers_.”

“Of course they don’t.” Rhys mumbled, and held Jack’s face closer to his, enjoying the familiarity of Jack’s hold on his hips. “But thank you, anyway.”

Jack smiled big at him, a smile that Rhys was sure he was the only living person that ever got that smile on Jack’s face. Fuck, Rhys was a romantic.

He kissed Jack gently, just a peck. But Jack was never one for soft kisses, Jack is all bite and tongue, and soon enough he has Rhys’s legs around his waist and is devouring Rhys's mouth.

“Wish I could have seen your face when you opened it.” He nipped at Rhys’s neck, peppering small bites all the way up to his ear where he sucked on his earlobe, making Rhys hiss. “I bet it was a stupid face.”

“Not as stupid as yours when I talked about Huston James.” Rhys yelped when Jack bit his ear more forcefully.

“Stop talking about this fucker, I will kill him.”

“Jack, he is like seventy.” Rhys pulled on Jack’s hair. “I already have my own old man. I don’t need another.”

Jack pulled back slightly to look at Rhys’s face without releasing him.

“God, you really are a fucking pansy.”

Rhys glared at Jack, before kissing the man hard once more before pushing on his chest, getting up from the desk and straightening his clothes.

“Well, maybe I am. There’s nothing wrong with like a little bit of romance now and then.”

Jack’s laugh was bright and clear, and Rhys felt his annoyance dissipate when he felt Jack hugging him from behind.

“That’s good, cupcake.” Jack whispered with his face tucked on Rhys’s nape. “Because I have a surprise for you this night involving more flowers, a hot tub and champagne. We are gonna have lots of fun.”

Well, when it is put like that, romance is not bad at all if you ask Rhys’s opinion.


End file.
